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Mediterranean buyout firm Investindustrial looks set to bring its dispute with two investors that defaulted on commitments last year to a peaceful conclusion.

The firm is offering existing investors the chance to take on the commitments held by part of the estate of bankrupt US bank Lehman Brothers and US fund of funds HRJ Capital, a source aware of the situation said. The two investors defaulted on a capital call for funds for the buyout firm to increase its stake in motorcycle company Ducati in December.

The firm will cancel the commitments if the fund interests are not taken by other investors, the source said. This would lead to a slight reduction of the firm’s €1bn ($1.5bn) fund, although the two investors are understood to make up only a small fraction of the fund.

The process is on course to be resolved by the end of the year, the source said.

It appears unlikely Investindustrial, which was founded by dealmaker Andrea Bonomi and raised Italy’s then-largest buyout fund at €1bn last year, will take any further legal action.

In June, it emerged the firm had contacted its lawyers to examine its contract with investors to make sure it was best placed in negotiations.

Standard fund documentation would have allowed Investindustrial to sue its investors to pay the investment or to take away any profits they would be due to receive for the rest of the fund, while requiring continuing fee payments. The firm could have sought to sell the investors’ fund interests on the secondaries market.

In June, a person close to negotiations said the two investors represented under 2% of the firm’s assets under management of €1.8bn.

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Lehman Brothers fell into bankruptcy last September. HRJ Capital was bought by private equity firm Capital Dynamics in April this year.

Investindustrial declined to comment. Capital Dynamics did not return calls for comment. PricewaterhouseCoopers, administrators of Lehman Brothers in the UK, and the public relations agency for the bank’s lawyers in the US were unable to comment.